Housing and Urban Issues
Stresses on urban communities continue to affect housing, food security, child services, homelessness, business development and crime. Coverage includes stories about new solutions to how cities are run, how they develop as urban centers and about the people who live there.
The plug was pulled five years ago on a Google plan to build a digitally connected neighborhood in Toronto. The innovative opportunities it suggested — and the privacy questions it raised — have not gone away.
The Michigan governor has proposed using $100 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to build 2,000 affordable housing units across the state. The development would create housing for 6,000 residents and 1,600 jobs.
Small businesses need affordable commercial space. Federal stimulus funds offer the chance for local governments to get involved in a variety of ways — including becoming landlords themselves.
A new report found that civic engagement, such as participation in elections, number of nonprofits and library usage, is an important factor for determining community development, but this engagement is hard to measure.
The Regional Transportation District’s Accountability Committee issued a report urging the transit agency to attract riders before they establish post-pandemic routines of commuting to work by car, highlighting poor ridership as a top concern.
As Travis County, Texas, aims to reach herd immunity levels for COVID-19, local researchers express concern that many economically disadvantaged communities are about six weeks behind in vaccinations.
Washington is sending cities a gigantic fiscal gift. They have to produce results. The danger is that the money will be squandered. Republicans are watching all that generosity with skepticism.
The concept that everything should be within a short walk or bike ride keeps coming up, but making it a reality raises challenging questions.
The city’s Department of Violence Prevention will receive $17 million across the next two years in an effort to combat steeply rising rates of homicides and violent crimes. But making significant changes will take time.
Before self-driving vehicles can be safely deployed in cities, the technology must learn all of the diversities of driving and pedestrian behavior, like the technically illegal “Pittsburgh left.”
Downtowns thrive when small-scale manufacturing is prioritized, and the ownership of those businesses is diverse. Federal recovery funds can go a long way toward helping this vital sector.
The city will begin its $230,000 campaign to try and increase public transit ridership, which dropped 80 percent in March 2020 and is still 60 percent below pre-pandemic levels.
Duluth Transit Authority has proposed reducing the number of bus routes by half and creating two high-frequency routes that will have buses running every 10-15 minutes throughout the day.
An estimated 25 percent of Oklahoma students don’t have high-speed Internet access at home, severely impacting children’s learning opportunities. Many households don’t even have reliable cell service.
Florida has one of nation’s most stringent building codes, and county rules require owners of older buildings to submit reports from licensed engineers or architects certifying a building’s safety after 40 years.
A federal judge has ruled that the state’s Department of Transportation must approve two public right-of-way permits to a Santa Fe company trying to establish broadband services in underserved communities.
State and local bans have been of some help in keeping renters in their homes, but the federal moratorium hasn't had much impact. Targeted cash relief and an abundant housing market are the best tenant protections.
The Big Easy isn’t the only city using chatbots to bridge equity gaps and provide more residents with the answers they seek on a 24/7 basis. Smarter chatbots are finding their places in public service.
The city has officially come out against the $10 billion proposed high-speed Maglev train to Washington, citing negative equity and environmental impacts. The trip between the two cities would cost riders $60 and take 15 minutes.
Road reformers want to demolish aging center-city freeways to make up for old racial harms. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it may be an effective argument.
Some New York legislators have proposed using federal infrastructure funds to revive the city’s streetcars, providing a nostalgic alternative to the bus. But transit advocates think the money should be used elsewhere.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot pledged police reform while campaigning for mayor, but two years later and the Chicago Police Department looks much as it did before she took office. Many are upset with the lack of change.
The replacement of the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel will eliminate a massive bottleneck and save Amtrak and MARC trains an average of 7 hours every weekday. The project will cost $4 billion and will be named after the Maryland abolitionist.
Gov. Greg Abbott discussed his plans to spend at least $250 million to continue the construction of a Texas-Mexico border wall. The governor has already started accepting donations for the project.
America’s largest city has a transit system under stress, and an ongoing battle between cars, bikes and pedestrians for control of the streets. Yet mayoral candidates are saying little about the transportation problems.
Six city-owned properties will be considered for affordable housing developments by the city council in an attempt to combat rising land costs. Half of the proposed sites are in wealthier parts of the city.
Five years after winning the Smart City competition, Columbus, Ohio, now believes it is better equipped than other cities to address EV implementation, climate change and the digital divide.
Many California tech workers are moving out of the state’s Bay Area and into neighboring Boise, which is driving up housing costs, increasing development and causing resentment among local Idaho residents.
In the first quarter of 2020, the city’s police solved 31.7 percent of major crimes compared to 36.8 percent the year prior. The drop could be attributed to COVID-19 and social unrest caused by the killing of George Floyd.
Federal funding formulas need to evolve to help regional governing bodies to accelerate both large and community-focused projects that have an impact across these large population clusters.
The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is looking to incorporate public transit into the region’s development conversations, as a way to incentivize and influence growth in the area.
